This invention relates to bone implants which include cancellous bone. More particularly, this invention relates to bone implants that include cancellous bone that has been treated with at least one loosening agent, such as collagenase and/or a digestive enzyme, in order to loosen osteogenic cells in the bone matrix. The cancellous bone also is essentially free of blood cells.
Bone implants which include cancellous bone have been used in a variety of procedures and treatments, including bone fusions such as spine fusions, disc augmentations in the spine, and bone fill applications employed in the treatments of diseases, disorders, or injuries including, but not limited to, avascular osteonecrosis, osteosarcoma, acute fractures and fracture non-unions, as well as for bone regeneration for orthopedic implants. Such bone in general may be harvested from any source of cancellous bone, including vertebrae, the iliac crest, femur, tibia, or ribs.
Cancellous bone implants in general have included, in addition to osteocytes and osteogenic cells, blood cells including hematopoietic cells. In some implants, the implants have been treated in order to preserve the viability of all the cells in the implant, while in other implants, the viability of the bone cells, including the osteogenic cells, has been destroyed.